


Time for a change

by baby345



Category: The Proud Family
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Will tag as I go along
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-21
Updated: 2016-03-21
Packaged: 2018-05-15 07:50:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 2,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5777482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baby345/pseuds/baby345
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Penny Proud's know for being loud, proud and got it going on! straight A student and graduated top ten percent of her class she's got a plan in mind and is finally ready to spread her wings and go on to the college of her dreams... only everybody knows plans don't always go the way we hope and she's about to learn that sometimes reality has other things in mind</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. KAE

**Author's Note:**

> "I'mma be okay, my path is gonna get clearer  
> Live in the moment, keeping you in my back mirror"

Oh, you're supposed to love with a love that's official”

My hands start to relax their grip on the steering wheel as I drive farther away from the only home I know I could feel the tension leave my body and a smile spread on my face as I thought about where I’m heading and what I’m leaving behind in the process

“Talking all that shit, it don't mean”  
“Fuck around and go missing, oh”

After 18 long years filled with strict rules and constant supervision I finally was free no more harsh discipline, no more restrictions, and no more curfew I finally was going to be able to experience the things I didn’t get a chance too. 

“And don't try to make up cause I'm fine  
Cause you're a stranger in my eyes”

My smile lose some of its brightness as the words blasting through my speaker start to hit a little too close to home and I feel a million and one memories both good and bad try to weigh down on my good mood 

“Stranger in my eyes”

I choose to shake them off I refuse to make myself sad about shit I can’t change, “It’s a fresh start” I mutter to myself “you worked hard to get where you’re going” and I’ll be damned if I let one asshole ruin this for me

“I'mma be okay, my path is gonna get clearer  
Live in the moment, keeping you in my back mirror”

As I start to mumble along to the soulful tune I glance over in the passage seat and see my acceptance letter laying out in clear view next to the spilled contents of my beige Michael kors bag I couldn’t help but get hype and belt the rest of the chorus out:

"What you gonna do when nobody's at home? Yeah  
Shoulda thought of that when you turned so cold babe"

“I couldn’t press on the gas fast enough”


	2. omega

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "When you don't know yourself  
> If it hurts you to explain  
> You're God in my eyes  
> Just ride"

I never realized how easy it was to lose yourself in your thoughts,

Cruising at an easy speed of 45 and having the radio as your only company you tend to start to let your thoughts roam in territory

you’re not ready for and that’s basically how I was feeling why should I stress shit that’s getting left behind?

I still had half an hour till my destination and to stop myself from overthinking

I mentally went through everything I needed to do when I get there

“Find my hall and dorm”

“Meet roommate”

“Unpack what you can”

“Try to meet with the club director as soon as possible”

Without thinking about it I flicked on my turn signal mindful of the GPS on my phone directing me,

I could feel my hands start to tremble as my thoughts were interrupted by Siri announcing that I was 15 minutes away so as soon as I switched into the right lane

I let the top down of Natasha my red 2005 mini cooper and gradually let myself relax,

feeling that California sun on my brown skin calmed my nerves as much as I hated my town I could never hate my state the sun, the water and everything about it made me who I am.

Stopping at a red light I quickly checked my phone to see if I was going in the right direction only to see “DO NOT ANSWER” flash across my screen

every feeling of relaxation few out the window and was replaced with irritation “I should really block his ass” I murmured

I carelessly tap the red button on my iPhone and lightly toss it back on my seat ,

taking a deep breath every memory I didn’t want to think about flashed in my head

him getting scouted to Florida state university,

me at every basketball game wearing the number 35,

and finally me dumping that sorry ass when I realized I wasn’t his only personal cheerleader.

i'm not gonna lie it hurts when the guy you put your time, effort and love into

suddenly act like his big shit and basically try to ball on you like you ain't hold him down for two years

Hearing a car horn behind  me i quickly shake myself out of my thoughts and speed off 

pass the quickly approaching welcome to “university of southern California” sign. 


	3. Hello

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I'm in California dreaming about who we used to be  
> When we were younger and free"

Pulling into the parking lot I try to as quickly as I can maneuver around all the teary eyed parents and soccer mom vans to find a decent spot 

so I wouldn’t have to drag all my luggage far but as luck would have it everybody seemed to have the same idea today 

“Come on miss” I huffed “you don’t own the damn spot move!”

I beeped my horn so the lady in front of me would move her big ass jeep from blocking the last nice parking spot 

When I was satisfied that my baby wouldn’t get scratched up I pulled into the now free spot and parked.

Getting out I survey the crowd for a friendly face who’ll want to help a newbie out or at least point me to the right directions 

After Deciding that nobody seem to be in a nice mood today

I turn around to grab the nearest bag and my phone only to hear 

“Hey do you need any help”? I nearly dropped my bag back in the car when I hear those magical words 

I turn around to see a tall girl with dark skin and long wavy hair walking up to me 

“Hi my auntie and I saw you looking lost” she pointed to the Chevy Tahoe two spots over from mine

to a pretty older lady who waved when she seen us looking 

“Yes” I laughed “I’m a little confused I’m looking for I think mark towers?” I pulled the paper out of my pocket to double check 

Her face lit up “my sister and I are in that hall Cori already went ahead to get our key but if you want you can walk with us to meet her there “she offered turning around to walk back

“oh” she stopped as if reminded “I’m Connie” she beamed

“I’m Penny” I offered back I adjusted my purse, locked my car doors and followed my new friend back to her car.

Standing next to her I could clearly see the height difference she had to have stood at about five feet eight inches which to most people wasn’t tall

but to little old five foot me that was tall enough and she was really lovely I learned from the time we stopped to briefly introduce me to her aunt Hilary

and get the rest of their stuff that she was here on a scholarship for dance while her sister came on a scholarship for drama

“which is fitting since she’s the biggest drama queen I know” her aunt had added in with a chortle between that little quip and the chuckle we shared 

I told them about my major in social work and the scholarship I won from the wizard Kelly scholarship association for those with high gpa’s going into social work. 

Between sharing stories of our hometown and what we wanted to join on campus I realized maybe starting over won’t be as hard as I thought.


	4. send my love to your new lover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Send my love to your new lover  
> Treat her better"

After we met up with cori who was a mirror image of her sister but with dimples,

 

And got directions and our keys we started to stroll through campus joking the whole time and pointing out a couple cute people that caught our eye

 

and cracking up at their aunt ragging on some of the ones she thought was ugly

 

To our relief we made it to the building with minimum problems in under fifteen minutes and set out to find rooms 512 and 520 to put our first load down

 

After dropping them off and promising to stop by after I got situated and vice versa I finally made it to my rooms just farther down the hall

 

and felt all the nerves I forgot all about come back.

 

the door was already opened so I assumed that my roommate must already be here and getting set up

 

I peeked in and to my surprise it wasn’t too small it was fairly decent sized with two twin beds, desks and bulletin boards on opposite sides

 

The left by the window was already half decorated so I went straight to the bed on the right and dropped my stuff down I’m so tired” I whined as I spread out again the mattress “I’ll just text my parents and let em know I made it here safely and then take a breather till I have to go get the rest of my shit”

 

Happy with the plan I came up with I pressed my home button only to see my phone had been blown up already

 

Now I’m the first to say that I’m not superstitious but I firmly believe in the whole ‘once is an accident, twice is an coincidence and three times is a pattern’ thing and when I checked my phone and seen two missed calls from dijonay, two messages from Zoey and one snap from LaCienega I knew something was up

 

now usually I wouldn’t trip they could’ve been just checking on me making sure I was good that I settled in well dijonay and Zoey would that is,

 

but LaCienega? No this bitch knew something and this canary is obviously ready to sing

 

so as calmly as I could I unlocked my phone to see what zoey had to say first

 

ZdoubleOG:

 _I'm so sorry penny_ -12:44pm

 _Are you okay?_ -12:46pm

 

Feeling more than a little freaked out by zoey text messages I try to call dijonay

 

“Oh penny thank God you called me back are you okay I just heard girl”

 

“Dijonay what’s going on what you heard I just got Zoey messages?”

 

She paused

 

“You didn’t check LaCienega snap yet did you?”

 

Feeling frustrated and a little hesitant

 

I finally check the snap from she devil

 

Only to see a screenshot of some bitch Instagram with a collage of her and my ex markus kissing and a ultra sound with the caption that says “our little one made six months today “

 

now I’m not stupid okay my ex graduated a year before me and I suspected he was cheating on me and that’s why we broke up the first time in November

 

we ended up talking again until I officially called it quits in June

 

now like I said I’m no fool and anybody can do simple math so if me and this fuck boy broke up officially in June and it’s September right now

 

what the fuck does that say?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "We've gotta let go of all of our ghosts  
> We both know we ain't kids no more"


	5. Brand New

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Well baby fuck you and then the new crew you're rollin' with  
> They don't know you like I do  
> I swear when niggas start making money, they start acting funny"

Have you ever been so angry all you could see is red?

Or so ill you felt your head go light and your throat close up and air suddenly become so hard to attain that you feel like you are fighting for it?

I was furious and hurt and pissed,

it’s so funny to me how one picture could spin your world of its axis and flip it on its head,

I wanted to scream and wail and let it all out but more importantly I wanted to reach through the phone grab Markus by his stupid polo shirt that he love so much

and just yell ”how could you do this to me? I held you down for so long even when I had my suspicions and you do this to me”? 

I shouldn’t be hyperventilating over this I mean his not even my problem anymore I should wash my hands of this, 

exit out the snap,

call my friends back tell them I don’t care he was trash and laugh with them over the fact that I dodged a bullet and that lacienega shady ass snapchat

had no effect on me whatsoever.

But I couldn’t do it not when all those months of doubts and uncertainty had just been confirmed

not when tears were welling up in my eyes and everything was blurry and spinning far out my control 

because it’s one thing to have your sneaking suspicion and never sticking around to find out and I would have been happy to never know

but to have it confirmed in the worst way possible? a baby? I could feel my heart breaking all over again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Never thought that you would act so brand new  
> While you're living good, what about me too"?


	6. pretend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Pretend that I care when I don't care  
> Once upon a time I did"

"Hey you good?"

I whipped my face to the left to see who asked the question and felt my face go hot when I caught a split second glimpse of myself in the floor length mirror

my face was all red and blotchy and had tear tracks rolling down  
and not for the first time I cursed my light complexion for making it hard to hide things 

turning my attention back to the one who spoke I saw a tall tan man with big hazel eyes and a pretty brown skin girl decorated in freckles crossing into the doorway a concerned look on their face

"Y-yeah I'm fine" I try to wipe my face even though I knew it was in vain and throw my phone on the bed besides me

Are you sure? It's not every day I find crying girls in my room" she joked and turned around to help unload some boxes from the boy hand

I laughed a little and introduced myself "sorry I'm your roommate penina but you could call me penny" I say 

I quickly offer my help as she seem to be struggling a bit but her and the boy both declined saying that it seemed I had a hard enough day

I appreciated them for not pushing it

"Well I'm your roommate Lucian but you may call me Lucy and this here is my older brother Bradley his here to do all the heavy lifting" she jokingly said

"Now don't be volunteering me for things Lucifer" he mumbled placing the rest of the boxes on the light pink bed and missing the pencil thrown his way for the nickname 

he then turned around and flashed a quick smile our way letting me know he was only joking

I sent a shy smile back before focusing on my roommate it was obvious they weren't related by blood since they looked nothing alike 

but the teasing banter let me know they were obviously close

"Well since we are both still bringing stuff in would you like us to help you with yours?"

Agreeing with the suggestion I snatch my keys off the empty bed wipe my face down one last time and

follow them out the door leaving my thoughts and the situation behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Now I admit that I was fucking with a kid  
> Now I pretend that everything's straight  
> When everything ain't just covered up like paint "


	7. Broken hearted girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You're everything I thought you never were  
> And nothing like I thought you could have been

After we left the room I quickly checked on the twins

to see how far they were progressing with unpacking

“Hey Pennnyyy” 

Cori sang when she saw me in the hallway 

I laughed and stepped inside coaxing Bradley and Lucy in too 

“Hey Cori where’s your aunt and Connie?”

I asked once I seen it was just her alone in the colorful room 

She sighed dramatically “they went to get us food and left me with all the work can you believe that I should get paid for this labor ain’t free” 

I heard Lucy laugh and seen Cori jump up to see where the new sound was coming from 

"Well hello gorgeous I didn’t see you guys back there I’m Cori and you are"? 

It was more directed at Lucy than Bradley but at least she was trying to be polite 

“I’m Lucy and this is my brother Bradley” Lucy offered shyly 

I watched the exchanged between them amused at how Cori was using her dimples to their full effect on the poor girl

Lucy didn’t stand a chance. 

I felt Bradley slide besides me smirking at his sister attempts at flirting back

“So I know it’s none of my business but are you okay from earlier”? 

I paused at the question 

"I... I will be I just got some shitty news nothing that I can’t handle” I could feel my eyes watering and tried to discreetly wipe my eyes 

I could tell by Bradley face he didn’t buy it but let it go in favor of watching his sister try to handle the darker girls attention.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And though there are times when I hate you  
> 'Cause I can't erase  
> The times that you hurt me and put tears on my face


End file.
